Avalanche disaster of 1954 in Vorarlberg
| Avalanche disaster in 1954 | |
|---|---|
| classification | Heavy snow event |
| Data | |
| Beginning | January 8th |
| Climax | 10-12 January 1954 |
| Snowfall | > 2 m / 24 h |
| Total avalanches | ~ 400 |
| including avalanches | ~ 150 |
| consequences | |
| affected areas | Vorarlberg -Alpenraum, especially the municipality of Blons |
| Victim | approx. 280 buried people, 125 dead |
| Damage: more than 600 buildings destroyed the avalanche barrier in the Eastern Alps |
|
Map with all linked sites: The avalanche disaster of 1954 in Vorarlberg had its focus in the Großer Walsertal , there especially the communities Blons , Sonntag , Fontanella and St. Gerold . It also included the Montafon , there especially Bartholomäberg , the Klostertal, there especially Dalaas , the Bregenzerwald , there especially Mellau and Hittisau .
Overview
Between January 10 and 12, 1954, a number of avalanches occurred which were preceded by extreme snowfalls. The damage record was appalling, around 280 people were buried, 125 of whom lost their lives.
It was most extreme in the Großer Walsertal and there especially in the municipality of Blons , where a third of the houses were destroyed by two avalanches and a total of 57 people were killed. Some of the survivors were seriously injured and had to wait for help for two days. In the communities of Sonntag , Fontanella and St. Gerold , which are also located in the Großer Walsertal , a total of 13 people were killed. Outside the large Walsertal, the municipality of Bartholomäberg was badly affected, where 18 people were killed in two avalanches.
Meteorology and Impact Analysis
The winter of 1953/1954 began very mildly. On December 9, 1953, it was still unusually warm and spring flowers were sprouting. From January 8, 1954, snowfall began at a level that the residents had never experienced before. Up to 2 meters of fresh snow fell within 24 hours. The large amounts of fresh snow could not bond with the ground at the previously prevailing temperatures and the avalanche danger worsened.
The first avalanches began as early as the morning of January 10th. In the three days up to January 12th, around 400 avalanches were released, 150 of them damaging. As a result, around 280 people were buried and around 600 residential and farm buildings were destroyed. 125 people and 500 large and small livestock were killed. The rescue and reconstruction operations could only be managed with international help and great public participation.
Noteworthy for the time was the long-term international rescue operation and support for the victims that began soon. In addition, as a consequence of the avalanche disaster, the construction of extensive avalanche barriers in the Austrian Alps began.
Events in the individual regions
Great Walsertal
On the morning of January 10th, an avalanche in the Seewaldtobel near Fontanella in Großwalsertal claimed two first lives.
On January 11th at 10 a.m. on the Falvkopf above Blons, 82 residents of 14 farms in the Walkenbach district were buried by a first dust avalanche during heavy snowfall . 34 of them died. On the evening of the same day, around 7:30 p.m., another avalanche broke out on Mont Calv and buried 43 people. 22 people died. The first helpers came on January 12 from the initially alarmed neighboring town of St. Gerold .
In the other sunny communities in the Great Walser Valley, avalanches cost ten lives in Sonntag and Fontanella and three in St. Gerold. The avalanche accident affected almost every family in the Großer Walsertal.
Montafon
In addition to the Großer Walsertal, the communities from Bartholomäberg to Schruns in the Montafon were severely affected. In two avalanches in the Lutt parcel and on the Montjola, 35 people were buried, 18 of whom were killed.
Klostertal
On January 12th, people died in the Klostertal at and in the train station of Dalaas . There an avalanche went off shortly after midnight and hit the locomotive and some wagons of a passenger train trapped in the snow and part of the station building. While the passengers in the wagons got away with the horror, ten people died in the waiting room of the station.
In the entire Bludenz district , 280 households with a total of over 1200 people were recorded as avalanche victims.
Bregenzerwald
In the Bregenz Forest , 15 people lost their lives due to avalanches. The municipalities of Mellau and Hittisau were particularly affected.
Process to the municipality of Blons
In the Vorarlberg mountain community of Blons, as in the entire region, people have lived mainly from cattle farming for a long time, which has also led to a gradual reduction in the areas of protected forest. In the night from Sunday to Monday, the power went out in the entire area. On January 11, at 10 a.m. below the Falvkopf, the first large avalanche buried 82 residents in 14 courtyards.
In the evening, another avalanche broke out on Mont Calv and buried 43 people, including many who had escaped the first avalanche. For a whole day, the survivors in the community of Blons were initially alone with the consequences of the tragedy because the telephone lines no longer worked and the streets were impassable. They searched for loved ones with their bare hands. The first helpers came on January 12 from the initially alarmed neighboring town of St. Gerold.
When the authorities heard of the catastrophe that afternoon, a large-scale operation began immediately: Riot gendarmerie, aid organizations, fire departments and hundreds of volunteers from home and abroad who were called up on the radio drove to the snow-covered Walsertal. These included members of the French and American occupation forces. For the first time in Europe, helicopters were used for rescue.
See also
- Avalanche winter 1951 , January 19-22 January event
literature
- Reinhold Bilgeri: The breath of heaven. Novel, fiction, 2nd edition, Molden Verlag, Vienna, 2005. ISBN 3-85485-146-4
- Eugen Dobler (eyewitness, teacher in Blons, born 1910): Leusorg im Grossen Walsertal: The avalanche catastrophe 1954. Eugen Dobler - Munich: self-published, 2009 - 7th edition ( review )
- Helga Nesensohn-Vallaster: The avalanche winter 1954. January 11, 1954 from the point of view of a person affected. Heimatschutzverein Montafon , Schruns, 2004. ISBN 3-902225-10-6
- Joseph Wechsberg : Blons, the story of a catastrophe. Reportage novel, Wolfgang Krüger Verlag, Hamburg, 1959 ( review zeit.de )
media
- Sabine Zink, Gerhard Jelinek : Blons avalanche disaster. (Documentation, 2010. At 3sat.de)
- Reinhold Bilgeri : The breath of heaven . Fiction, 2010, 138 min.
- People & Powers : Documentation and contemporary witnesses on ORF on January 6, 2012
Web links
- The avalanche disaster of 1954. In the Vorarlberg Chronicle of the Vorarlberg State Government, Bregenz
- Blons commemorates the avalanche disaster on January 11, 1954. From January 8, 2009 (To the exhibition “People and Mountains” by Franz Bitsche in the Blons community center.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Weblink Vorarlberg Chronicle
- ↑ Zink, Jelinek: Blons avalanche disaster. Documentation, 2010. Div. Eyewitness accounts.
- ^ Edlinger, Staude-Stock: Avalanche protection. Specialized geographic exercise, 2003, technical information on avalanches and measures to protect against avalanches in Galtür . ( pdf , eduhi.at)
- ↑ Love and madness on the avalanche slope . Der Standard, March 15, 2010
- ↑ Film shoot on the Alpe Oberpartnom ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , alpenlandforum.net, accessed on December 10, 2010
